FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, November 14, 2016

Bedford-Stuyvesant Woman Sentenced to 18 Years to Life for
2007 Bay Ridge Hotel Murder

Victim Stabbed in Face, Neck

Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a Bedford-Stuyvesant woman was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing a man inside a room at the Best Western-Gregory Hotel in Bay Ridge.

Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant suddenly attacked and robbed her intimate partner, killing him. She has now been held responsible for taking a life.”

The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as Pamela Hanson, 29, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. She was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Neil Firetog to 18 years to life in prison. The defendant pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last month.

The Acting District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on December 2, 2007, at approximately 3:03 p.m., the defendant and the victim, David Diaz, 27, who were acquaintances, checked into a room at the Best Western-Gregory Hotel in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. According to the defendant’s own statements, after engaging in consensual intercourse with the victim, the defendant removed a knife she had previously hidden under a pillow and proceeded to repeatedly stab the victim about the face, neck and torso.

The defendant confessed to taking the victim’s bank card and cellphone. The investigation revealed that the defendant attempted to use the victim’s bank card to purchase shoes at Yvette’s Boutique in Downtown Brooklyn, but that attempt was denied. She disposed of both the cellphone and bank card.

The defendant was previously convicted of second-degree murder following a jury trial in 2009 and was granted a retrial in 2015 and subsequently pleaded guilty.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Melissa Carvajal, Deputy Bureau Chief of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Taub, Chief.